Remembering Legendary Investor Sir John Templeton

Mark
Mobius is the Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging
Markets Group. He currently directs analysts based in
Franklin Templeton's 18 emerging markets offices and
manages the portfolios. Dr. Mobius has spent more than 40
years working in global emerging markets and has received
numerous industry awards. He was named one of Bloomberg
Markets Magazine's "50 Most Influential People" in 2011 The
World Bank and Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development appointed Dr. Mobius joint chairman of the
Global Corporate Governance Forum Investor Responsibility
Taskforce. He has authored several books on investing and
pens a blog, "Investment Adventures in Emerging Markets" at
mobius.blog@franklintempleton.com.

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The 29th of November marks the anniversary of what
would have been Sir John Templeton’s 100th birthday, someone who
helped shape my career as a portfolio manager, and who I admire
greatly as a human being. I first met the late Sir John
more than three decades ago when I was working as an analyst for
a broker based in Hong Kong. I traveled a few times to Nassau to
make presentations to the Templeton portfolio teams, which is how
he and I first became acquainted.

One day Sir John approached me to manage a new emerging markets
group that he was starting and was very excited about. I jumped
at the opportunity. This was a great chance to do things globally
rather than just focus on Taiwan (where I was head of the
country’s first investment management company at the time), and
there weren’t many—if any—other portfolio managers focusing on
global emerging markets. So, it was quite an opportunity!
This year is the 25th anniversary of what’s now
the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. The markets certainly have
changed a lot since then, but our core investment philosophy
remains true to Sir John’s timeless approach.

One of the things that I always found most interesting about Sir
John was that even though he was a wealthy man, he lived and
worked very simply. He didn’t spend a lot of money, and he
abhorred waste. For example, rather than discard note paper that
had been used, he would cut it up and use the opposite side
instead of purchasing new notepads. He was thinking green before
recycling became widespread!

He was frugal with office space too. When I first started working
with him, the Templeton office was located in the attic of a
small shopping center in Nassau. I remember some Japanese
investors came to meet with Sir John and they were shocked that,
given the amount of money he was managing, he worked in such a
modest office.

This resourcefulness was reflected in how Sir John worked, too.
He was constantly reading and studying in order to make the most
informed decisions possible.

I learned many things from the late Sir John, but I think the
most important was humility. He always said that we have to be
humble, because without humility we won’t be able to learn and
adapt to changing environments. And he didn’t just talk about
those things, he really led by example. That’s something I
try to emulate in my own life.

The brief video below is in appreciation of Sir John’s life and
the influence he still has on Franklin Templeton Investments’
perspective and our employees. Enjoy!

Investment Adventures in Emerging Markets - Notes from
Mark Mobius
Mark Mobius, Ph.D., executive chairman of Templeton Emerging
Markets Group, joined Templeton in 1987. Currently, he directs
the Templeton research team based in 15 global emerging markets
offices and manages emerging markets portfolios. As he spans the
globe in search of investment opportunities, his “Investment
Adventures in Emerging Markets” blog gives readers a taste for
what he does, when, where, why and how. Dr. Mobius has written
several books, including “Trading with China,” “The Investor’s
Guide to Emerging Markets,” “Mobius on Emerging Markets,”
“Passport to Profits,” “Equities—An Introduction to the Core
Concepts,” “Mutual Funds—An Introduction to the Core Concepts,”
”The Little Book of Emerging Markets,” and “Mark Mobius: An
Illustrated Biography."